CERN (Particle Physics) is it a waste of time and money?.?

Question

Except for the formation of the Internet, I see little use for quarks, dark matter and the Higgs Boson in my daily life.
Am I missing a trick or could the billions already spent, been used for a practical use e.g. Cancer cure or developing the third world.

Answer 1

How about the billions spent on getting cheap gas for the Americans by invading Iraq being used for medical research or use it to beat world hunger.

Answer 2

You dismiss the Internet so quickly, but how much do you think its worth? I'm willing to bet that if you look at the global benefit from the Internet it more than pays for all the time, effort, and money that has been put into CERN.

Also you must understand that science is a holistic endeavor. What this means is that time and energy spent advancing one area of science usually in some way helps out many other areas of science. For example a better understanding of Quantum Mechanics, could help chemists better understand certain reactions, which biologists could then use to work out better cancer treatments. Or new technologies developed to make the beam lines at CERN could then be used to design better beams for use by hospitals in Chemotherapy.

Answer 3

Then you don't see any use in LED or plasma TVs,
You also don't care about the next generation in computing; Quantum Computers.
You also seem to care less about the formation of the universe or the fundamental particles that make up all matter.

To bad, I wish more Americans had interest in science and answering basic questions like what is gravity, how did the universe form and what really happened at the big bang.

Science is rarely pure science just for science's sake; eventually we get to the point where we can use it. For example learning about Mars has taught us a lot about our planet. Venus is an example of Global Warming gone wild...

The Universe is a lot larger and wider than most people think and we are trying to understand it. The more we understand things the better we can build our products and develop new technology.

For example the web camera that made U-Tube so great was pioneered on Apollo 11 with the need for a portable camera. Heat shields lead to Teflon and Corning Ware, with a lot of people use every day.

Then the understanding of elementary physics isn't really important; just because Quantum Mechanics explains all of chemistry and how it works allowing us to create new products and understand how carbon nano-fibers work, which will revolutionize any industry that uses a container from spacecraft to cars to suitcases and desk tops.

The search for cancer has involved a lot of research in the medical area and it has increased our understanding of how the body works and how thinks like particle physics causes cancer. I mean what do you think UV radiation really is?

I won’t call you blind, because at least you had the courage to ask the question, but narrow minded comes to mind. The fundamental understanding of the universe and how it is made will affect ever thing from our understanding of black holes and neutron stars to the way we can make things lighter and stronger. I can’t list all the applications because we don’t know the answers to what basic particle physics can tell us and how it can affect us.

Answer 4

Actually, it's particle physics that has already provided treatments for cancer - radiotherapy.

Cutting edge research involves a lot of technical innovation and advances, which can lead to better technology in many unrelated fields. The internet is just one particular instance of this. Just because these advances aren't always spelt out to you in your everyday life, doesn't mean the don't exist.

Of course, this isn't why we physicists do research, it's just how we justify it! (Feynman said; "Physics is like sex. Sure, it has some practical results, but that isn't why we do it.") Curiosity is the real reason - we have an overwhelming desire to understand the universe we live in. If we didn't we'd still be living in caves.

Answer 5

Setting aside any possibilty of better understanding how matter behaves leading to direct practical outcomes (such as controlling plasma fluxes in fusion reactors - leading to cheap energy for all) mankind, or at least some of it, yearns for a better understanding of how the world works for its own sake. We look at the natural world in awe and seek to deepen the relationship, understanding another layer of big or small with each generation of humanity. In the process some portion of humanity is fortunate enough to become more insightful, cleverer perhaps, and some will be able to pass on that knowledge and wisdom. Learning is one of the things we humans do best ... we adore knowledge ... hence ... sapiens.
The alternative is a new dark age.

Answer 6

And besides one far out view on curing cancer is to send a stream of anti matter into the cancer thus destroying the tumour altogether. So yes maybe research into particle physics could help cure cancer.

Answer 7

It is sometimes hard to see the benefits of scientific research until it is something that you use on a daily basis. I am sure when research was being done on the formation of the Internet, a lot of people said that was a waste of time as well and now look where we are.

CERN sort of reminds me of what people once though of the space program but many benefits have come from research that has been performed in zero-G environments.

Answer 8

An interesting question. I don't have a simple answer, but here is another question.

Wouldn't it be useful if those people at CERN discovered a new particle that led to an effective cancer treatment?

Answer 9

Curing cancer and developing the third world are much more short-term goals. Understanding the physics of the world we live in affects every human that will ever live, and it's inherently more important.

Answer 10

i stumble on it extremely exciting which you're spreading your ridiculous opinion by way of the information superhighway - which grow to be invented by way of the scientists at CERN. aside from the reality that this technological know-how leads to applications that may improve international high quality of existence (purifier power assets to illustrate, or scientific physics), the money spent on particle physics is tiny while in comparison with that spent by way of the protection rigidity working example in pursuit of killing people. it is likewise a question of political will. there is sufficient meals and water interior the international for everybody to have sufficient. hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands are spent in help each twelve months - yet devoid of the political will to back it no longer something differences. seem at Zimbabwe - people are demise of cholera, regardless of each and all the money being thrown on the situation. you realize why? Robert Mugabe won't enable help workers in. the place precisely to do you think of the money spent on particle physics is going, besides? they do no longer set fireplace to it and shove it into the particle accelerator - it is going to scientists, technologies businesses, universities. employing your argument, why do artists get given government grants? --------------------------------------... Following your extra counsel: Nuclear weapons isn't what the test is for. that's an test it relatively is a element of the physique of suggestions of shifting in direction of being waiting to have controlled nuclear fusion in the international. this could be a source of power which would be sparkling, exceedingly useful and could no longer flow away various nasty radioactive waste products around. --------------------------------------... >>in case you ignored it.. the clarification they're coming up a small celebrity is SPECIFICALY as a element of nuclear weapons analyze.. .no longer some valuable holiday of analyze to help the international.<< incorrect, as I reported till now. You for sure did no longer examine what I wrote, merely carried on abusing people. BTW, please lay off Jason T.